It's a complete respray, done by Argos Cycles in Bristol. I'll post up a full rundown of all the bits & pieces fairly soon.

@legrandefromage - yep I know what you're saying, and in fact the whole bike will benefit from a year with no polishing at all, to allow all the shiny bits to dull off a bit. Too much time on my hands during the summer, and a shelf full of polish to get through.

OK, the story behind this is quite simple. Back in 1973 (when I was 12) I was given a turquoise and red Raleigh Olympus for Christmas. My brother got the flamenco red one with blue mudguards. Within six months his had lost both mudguards, a brake and half the bearings out of the headset. Mine had sprouted an array of horns, mirrors and lights, and although looking impressively like a mod scooter, was completely uncontrollable due to the weight at the front end. I also managed to lash up a whippy aerial to the saddle. I must have loooked like a circus act.

I do remember the frame size being 19 inch, so it was a tad too large for me initially, and then after four years was too small. Also after four years mine had lost the mudguards and all the accessories. By 1977 it was an absolute nail - and I'd resprayed it metalflake purple with gold pinstripes.

This project is a 21.5 inch frame - after this, the biggest size goes up to a 27 inch wheel. I was keen to restore a 26 inch wheel Olympus as it had more retro appeal being the same size wheel as the one I had as a kid.

The frame number is 1666180, which dates this one to 1970. The bike itself was an eBay find from Colwyn Bay. I picked it up for 25 quid, but the drive all the way there and back from Gloucester took about eight hours.

Last edited by ironbike on Wed Dec 27, 2017 11:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

One of the main points of concern for me was the decals. These were clearly shot, and no amount of searching came up with any Raleigh Olympus decals anywhere. It was pretty obvious that due to the lowly nature of the bike, nobody was producing any decals. As it happens, I'm a graphic designer by profession so I contacted H Lloyd Cycles (the decal people) and asked them if they could produce a set of decals if I did the artwork (in Adobe Illustrator). They said yes so I set about photographing, tracing, printing, measuring and generally obsessing with it for about a month on and off.

A couple of the decals were already available - the heron for the seat tube and the rainbow stripes for the downtube. All the others I had to do myself. One of my techniques was to print the decals out on paper, and then cut them out and tape them to the frame. After this I would slice through the paper and see exactly how well aligned it was. You can see from the one below that at this particular stage I still had a lot of adjustment to do. I kept obsessing until it was as exact as i could possible make it.

For anyone else considering restoring a Raleigh Olympus you may be interested to know that I've given the artwork to H Lloyd and said they're welcome to sell them.

Last edited by ironbike on Wed Dec 27, 2017 11:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The Raleigh Olympus was produced in two versions. The early Mk 1 was produced between 1970 and 1976, although in the final year or two Raleigh were beginning to cut corners in the spec, the main change being the move from Bluemels All Rounders to Bluemels Populars. Another thing to look out for are the disappearance of the fork thimbles and brazed on pump brackets instead of the chrome frame clips.

In around 1977 the Mk 2 was released, called the Olympus GT5. It was of course just a giant retrograde step, being heavier and cheaper than the Mk 1. The paint was plain flat blue as opposed to the beautiful metalflake of the Mk1 - and only blue was available. The mudguards were cheap heavy steel pressings - and I'm guessing it was about this time that Bluemels became part of SKS and went to Germany. This probably put cost pressure on Raleigh so they began producing cheap steel mudguards inhouse. The Mk1 and the Mk 2 are very different bikes, with the Mk2 being little more than a product designed to fill a price point for Halfords.

Mine too. I eventually swapped it for a three speed bike of unknown origin - but it had ape hanger handlebars which were all the rage in 1977. These proved to be something of a mistake as I discovered the first time I tried to ride it into a headwind, with a rucksack full of maths books. And a fag hanging out of my mouth if I remember correctly.

Who is online

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum